Blog: Debt payment saves Dunnes from winding-up order

Irish retailer Dunnes may be breathing a sigh of relief as it enters the Christmas break, assured it will still be trading in the New Year, after a wind-up petition has been withdrawn.

The group was reportedly facing a possible winding up of the company over its alleged failure to honour a EUR21.6m (US$27.9m) bill for building works at a shopping centre in Kilkenny. Dunnes had been issued with the petition by insolvent construction group Holtglen in a case listed before the Commercial Court, The Irish Times reported last month.

The pressure, however, is now off with the petition having been withdrawn following payment in full of the debt.

According to the Irish Times at the weekend, Brian O'Moore SC, for Dunnes, said the court was aware of the reasons why the money was not paid and that those reasons were "genuinely held".

Holtglen had constructed a shopping centre in Kilkenny in which Dunnes agreed to be the anchor tenant. The centre was completed in 2009 but Holtglen later became insolvent and its loans were transferred to National Asset Management, a company of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

It is understood NAMA wrote to Dunnes in October last year warning that unless it was paid the sum within seven days, Holtglen would proceed to publish a petition to wind up the retailer on grounds it is "unable to pay its debts and/or it is just and equitable that it be wound up".

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